Monday, December 23, 2013

Last weekend, I was reading an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer when I came across
a sentence mentioning that a number of years back tinsel, as it had originally
been manufactured, had been taken off of the market because it contained
lead.What struck me immediately was not
the part about the lead but how many years it had been since I had actually
strung tinsel on a Christmas tree. One of the few things that I remember about
Christmas time as a child was how we all hung tinsel on the tree.The tinsel of youth was not plastic-y, but
had a very metallic feel to it. It would easily tangle and usually when you
went to pull one strand out of the pack, you would have to shake it loose from
all of the others so that you could place it on the tree.There were two styles of tinsel decorators in
the family – each of which reflected our personalities.There were those who liked to grab a handful
and just sort of fling it up on the tree, then there were other family members
like me who wanted to hang it strand by stand so that nothing overlapped and
everything hung down symmetrically.The
point about the tinsel is that it is one of the very few actual memories that I
have of childhood Christmases, but even that memory I think was a cumulative
result of the repetition of tinsel stringing year after year so that, like the
strands of tinsel of the tree itself, it was one phenomena built up of many
singular parts.

In addition to the tinsel, there are a few other things that
I remember. There were large colored lights and bright bulbs.The bulbs were delicately made and shattered
easily. You could expect at least one family member to drop one so that we had
to all stop until it was cleaned up and while you felt sorry for the person who
dropped it, you were glad it wasn’t you.In later years, I think we may have strung popcorn, too.Tree decoration was always a family event,
though not everyone was always there.

Every Christmas also included going to Mass on Christmas
morning.It was always tough to wait through
Mass until we could come home and play with the toys. There were always
Christmas carols our house, too, and for me the singing of Christmas carols is
still one of the visceral experiences of the holidays.Even when the Masses were still in Latin I
loved singing the songs.

One thing that almost everyone seems to remember from
Christmas is the making of Christmas cookies.In Mary’s family it was always lebukuchen and pfeffernussse; inLora’s it was cucidatis and gigilanis
(spelled wrong, not doubt) – both invoking ethnic traditions.Our cookies were much more pedestrian. In
fact, I can’t recall what they were, though I think that peanut butter and
oatmeal got involved somehow.And I
think there were cutouts.We always
fudge made though, and somehow a fruitcake always showed up as well. I also
remember the sticky mess that resulted one year when Mom tried to make
divinity.

During the years that we lived with my grandparents – four
in all – I can not remember a Christmas tree at all, though I am sure we must
have had one.What I do remember is
riding my bike to Woolworths downtown in Santa Ana
to by a gift of perfume or jewelry for Mom from money that I saved up from the
paper route.Perhaps the Christmas that
sticks most in my childhood memories is when I was in third grade and my
brother Steve in first and we both got red bicycles.It was the classic case of a kid getting
exactly what they wanted.

Despite the stew that is my diminishing memory, there is one
feeling that I recall quite clearly and that I think kids today must still
feel.That is the feeling of waking up
early in the morning – 4:30 or 5-
and having to lie in bed for a tortuously long time until our parents were
up.Then we would rush out high on
excitement as soon as Mom or Dad would tell us it was time for us to get up and
surround the tree.This past weekend,
when my grandsons Connor and Andrew came over to exchange gifts, I could relate
to their antsy-ness while they waited around for the adults to finish talking.
When it was finally announced that it was time to go open gifts, I was right
down there with them at the Christmas tree. I still remembered how that felt
and didn’t want them to have to wait.